


Actuality Flux

by TheMockingCrows



Series: Mixed Blessings AU [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Incest, M/M, Multi, Oral Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2018-07-27 03:46:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7602115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMockingCrows/pseuds/TheMockingCrows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Time changes everything. Opinions, humans, surroundings, reality, even the gods themselves. The only question that can't be answered, however, is what to do when time stops behaving as it should. The gods and mortals are in a race against increasingly erratic time and space in hopes of salvaging this world they all live in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Times Have Changed

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr mirror: http://themockingcrows.tumblr.com/post/148058067147/actuality-flux-ch-1-times-are-changing

Time was an ever changing concept, holding still for no beast, nor man.

 

Nor god for the most part.

 

Coming to terms with being immortal had been difficult for Dave, both in the sense of comprehending a life never ending and in never changing or growing any further. He would never wind up looking more like his sire, would never grow taller or notable broader. There were rages, spikes of aggression and tantrums as he continued to adjust, physical fights once in a while going fairly far with his lovers when the flame ran away with him and tempers flared. It was a lot to take in, to cope with.

Short fuse aside, he learned. He prospered. Dave threw himself into the changing world around him instead of trying to focus on the past and what would never be. Humanity had been busy, and the Gods and Goddesses were working overtime to keep up with the new challenges that the mortals threw their way. Dave needed to step up into his role and adjust, rolling and swaying with the punches instead of trying to dodge. There were still problems, he was always learning.. but this new world that kept destroying parts of itself and coming back stronger was fascinating to watch and partake in occasionally.

Humans were being born faster, living longer, and making leaps and bounds with inventions to tackle and try to tame the world around them that, prior, had be solely the realm of the gods. It was amazing to see them launch so fast. Things called automobiles were invented, and the sturdy roads of wagons became invested with an odd mixture of these clanking things and the usual horse and cart. Ships were larger and traveled further faster, safer. There were even attempts at travel by air, though John wasn't too pleased and kept calling the massive balloon objects Bloated Chickens.

 

Not everything had changed, however. Sometimes, things simply moved or changed their appearance.

 

Leijon was ever the mother of beasts, guiding along new species to the light and holding vigil for those whose time on the planet had ended at last. She minded the species that humans had decided long ago to domesticate and keep in their herds, occasionally adapting them for their new lives or helping when prayed to in order to keep them well.. but otherwise keeping the wilds good and wild. Vast swaths of forest were seen as a refuge for the animals within, humans kept wary both because of their size and rumored ferocity, and for rumors of the goddess who continued to guard them with her life. The gigantic, pale beasts were the creatures of legend, and to see one was a blessing in and of itself should anyone brave the dense forests.

Some creatures slowly integrated with humanity. Centaurs still mostly kept to themselves, their long lives and fairly brutal ways matching more with the world that had long since moved on than that of the newly sped up modern era in many regards. There were still plenty within cities however, spreading their crafts and trades, their knowledge, keeping old stories alive. Beings that were once seen strictly as monsters, once specifically the target of gods and goddesses as examples of punishment passed, were now highly respected in their fields and carving their existence into the broader reaches of the world.

After all: they'd been alive the last time the gods accepted new beings into their numbers. They were the keepers of things that were forgotten, aligning themselves with the keeper of records far more than any other god or goddess. Megido was ever their patron, their most respected deity next to the flame that lit their forges for fine crafting, fickle though they both were. Megido herself had been distant from the masses in a higher degree than ever before, going for her travels alone on the edges of the void with the book in tow, offering less guidance in favor of silence and peace. Most of the gods assumed it was because of the stress of the new god and goddess being instated so recently, while the rest guessed it was a sign of the mortals making things harder on her. There was so much more to see and track and record and remember, so much good and so very much evil as humans prospered and spread.

 

Change was everywhere, no matter how much things remained the same at the root. The Gods were still daily parts of humans lives, yet many wouldn't recognize them were they standing right in front of the mortals. It worked in their benefit usually, especially for those who enjoyed interacting the most.

 

John, for instance, was loving how easily he could blend in with humans but still stand out and be envied. It fed his ego to be stared at, both for his handsome youthful appearance and for the ample jewelry and finery he enjoyed wearing. A soft, thin, blue shirt covered his chest and hung down past his collarbone and down over his thighs in split flaps before and behind his thighs. A dark blue jacket was the upper layer, and something he was quite fond of now for how much it flowed when the wind kicked up or he flew. It hung past his knees and was shorter up front, fastening shut at the chest and keeping short at the sleeve, long hood hanging back most of the time but large enough to obscure his features if he so chose. The best part was a long tail to the hood that nearly touched the ground, slightly obnoxious in public and absolutely perfect.

He never got out of the habit of extravagant gold and jewels, but had changed some of their styles. He'd gotten patterns added to his cuffs to make them more modernized, and kept the heavier necklaces around his neck. There was just no way to make up the cluttered jingling and tinkling quite like the actual valuables themselves, and the way they caught the light was fantastic. Shoes were still a thing to contend with, but so long as the sole was solid, nobody looked twice when he just used cloth wraps to cover the rest.

John was charismatic, loud, and stood out, yet.. it was hard for people to pick him out in a crowd all the time. He could step forward into a betting ring and lay down a good deal of money, urge others to play recklessly as luck was on their side, then step back when things fell apart so he could giggle at them for being foolish and potentially reward someone at random. People could look for who to blame, try to find the dark man with the blue eyes and roguish grin, yet walk right by him.

Conspicuously inconspicuous.

A hand fell on John's shoulder after the most recent venture, firm grip and not taking 'Later' for an answer.

 

“Ah.. Ahaha. Found me already?” he asked, trying to still his temptation to take flight or shift to breeze. No, no. No cheating that fast. If she persisted or he grew bored then he'd shift away and be a brat, make her chase him halfway across the continent for a spot of fun.

“As if you made it easy,” Jade huffed. “I may be able to track you fairly easily, but you certainly aren't a fan of staying still, are you!”

“What can I say? I get restless. Things move so slow when I have to just sit and wait,” he sighed, turn turned and spread his arms out, walking backwards a few paces. “The world's so amazing lately! Every day, they're learning how to do something new, or making something explode in on itself, or going places they're not meant to be. They're putting more of those balloons up all the time, they're actually sturdy too! I want to see how sturdy they can make one before I trash it next. Let them get a bit of practice in for a challenge.”

Jade hadn't aged a day. Well. She'd aged many days, and were it not for the magic flowing through her veins, she'd likely appear more of a crone than she'd prefer. Looking old wasn't bad, the silver hair suited her wild green eyes and sharp face, but the traces of her vanity preferred the youthful appearance.

After all, how many times would she have had to say 'No not THAT old witch, THIS one' in reference to herself? She'd rather be the eerily young one slinging spells and altering destinies, fingers in every pie she could find.

 

“Why do you tend to stay on this continent then? I'd have assumed one of the busiest places would be more your style?”

 

John stuck his tongue out at her before straightening his posture to walk normally beside her, easily blending in once again, barely registering sideways glances despite his appearance.

“Well. This continent has a lot of memories that don't make me annoyed.”

“Still wish you could change the past?”

“CONSTANTLY. Do you know how annoying that is? I can alter luck, and yet I can't influence the past. I'd like to just cut out all of that horse shit in the middle and make it straight to the happy ending.”

 

Jade rolled her eyes.

 

“You know that wouldn't work even if you COULD do it. Megido knows what the future holds, she doesn't let people tamper too much with what's supposed to happen. Alpha and Omega already have the groundwork till the end of times, we're all just filling in the pages till then. I don't think she'd lead you astray.”

“She allows for mess ups, same as Rose and Pyrope now does. Sometimes things need to fall apart a few times to get on the right path. Lessons learned, time gained, blah blah. Too many rules for all that to track and abide by. I'd much rather just focus on my breeze and scamming some humans who're gullible enough to trust a stranger.”

 

Jade grinned a bit, reached and bumped his hip before adjusting her skirt, not wanting it to snag on passerby at all.

 

“Oh come on, as if that's ever been something you DIDN'T do. Are you rewarding as often, though?”

“I HAVE to. It's kind of ridiculous, how humans treat each other nowadays. If I don't give a windfall now and then, some of them would never change, and then it'd be the same rigged games over and over and that is so boring I can't even put it to words.”

 

Being a god must be tiring sometimes. John was in constant search of fun and entertainment, and anything that dragged for too long was seen as annoying. Boring. Not worth his time. The only things that never changed were how devoted he was to his lovers, but even that was the same pattern: the group was always up to something, always into something, always playing around with one another when not doing their own jobs. Even if time to spend tangled up in bed somewhere was less than before, it was still a constant occurrence. More people meant more things to do in this world instead of off in the thrones watching from above.

 

“Back to the point, Jade: what did you want to talk to me about again? You were pretty insistent.”

“I was insistent sixteen years ago when you said you'd meet me for tea and you never showed up.”

“I had a date.”

“For sixteen YEARS??”

“... I had a lot of dates.”

 

At Jade's obvious irritation, John sighed and slowed to a stop, leaning against a low fence now that they'd finally reached the harbor, wanting to get a look back at the city with the cool wind whipping at his back and take a load off.

 

“Fine, fine, sorry. My bad. What's the problem?”

“The problem is that we're dealing with some rather serious problems with our premonitions here and I can't get anyone else to find time in their schedule to clarify anything,” she huffed. “Something's going wrong with our future viewing, and we can't understand WHAT it is, and when things happen sporadically it's usually one of you immortals faults. At certain points when we go to view forwards, everything just goes blank. Pitch black no matter what incantation we try. It's like hitting a wall entirely past a point not far in the future.. Like there's nothing there at all.”

“Are you looking in the wrong spot?”

“WHAT SPOT WOULD WE BE LOOKING AT THAT'S EMPTY?”

John shrugged, not looking bothered at all. “One of Roxy's voids? Maybe she's masking something at that point for a secret. Maybe you're masked. Maybe you're all dead, or blinded.”

 

“Can you understand why I've been trying to contact Rose about this?” Jade demanded, leaning closer. “Megido's not answering -anyone's- calls for help or guidance lately that we can detect, and Rose is so tangled up in busy work that it's nigh impossible to get a word in edgewise. I asked Jane if it was a sign of impending deaths and she just laughed and said not to worry about that. I assume my strand of fate is particularly stubborn and coated in steel, considering I've neither heard or nor sensed any kind of impending doom.”

“Okay, so maybe not dead. ..Mm. Something's probably going to happen to toss things around a bit,” John reasoned. “Sounds exciting. Why are you upset?”

“Aside from the fact that we could see beyond this point before and only comparatively recently started being blinded? Just not being able to do my job is upsetting. I've got the ability in spades, we're a very powerful trio. Yet.. now we have to tell clients that we're unsure, and that something is fogging the way.” Jade came to lean her forearms on the edge of the fence, looking out over the water instead of at the city as John was, wanting humanity at her back and free open spaces before her. “I want to clear that fog and I'm not sure where to start being taken seriously. Being blind is not my nature.”

 

John reached over and pat at Jade's back before snagging her in a one armed hug, tucking his face near her hair.

 

“Look. I'll go ahead and see what I can find out for you. Keep doing what you do best, stay in contact. Be annoying and keep trying to help yourself. We can figure out what's blocking you in due time, I'm sure. This too shall pass.”

“I hope so. I hate surprises.”

“You're so boring..”

“Shut up, John.”

 


	2. Repetiton

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Dave and Dirk spar, opinions begin to rage. Dirk wants strategy and practice, Dave wants evasion and an easier route. The two butt heads in the process and eventually give in to the same distractions that they've indulged in for hundreds of years now. When they've been alive for this long, nothing should surprise them. ...Right?
> 
> The second fracture appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr mirror: http://themockingcrows.tumblr.com/post/148164298917/actuality-flux-ch-2-repetition

“Keep your guard up,” Dirk barked as he dove forward again, taking a broad swing with his sword, forcing Dave to dance backward to dodge him. “Stop dodging and BLOCK me! Parry, even! You know how to do this, it's time to practice it!”

“If the end goal is to not get hit at all, I'm doing -fine-! Why would I want to parry or block your attack when I can just dodge you all the time?” Dave shot back, continuing to slink and dodge, tossing himself this way and that to make a point of how easily he was able to dodge the swings of Dirk's sword.

 

He lived for times like this. Times when Dirk didn't hold back, wasn't afraid of breaking him in half somehow, wasn't babying him. After all, Dave was an immortal just the same now, had better control of himself than he used to. Killing strikes wouldn't do much to him. Sure, he'd bleed and probably ruin a set of clothes, at worst he'd fade out and reform elsewhere again, but he wouldn't _die_. Reforming was actually kind of fun, if he was being brutally honest.

The only part that was bad was having to see the terror on Dirk and John's faces while they hunted for him to get him back. Jake was the only one not frantic about finding him, taking into account the whole immortality thing was at his back now.. but the calmness had given way to laughter once he realized that Dave was much like himself in the sense that he wasn't able to reach as far as other Gods. No instantaneous travel with him unless he focused as hard as he could, and even then there were many misfires to deal with as far as his aim was concerned.

With plenty of privacy for their sparring, Dave wasn't worried about drawing attention. He'd removed the fine boots he'd come to enjoy wearing after so long barefoot, and undid the lower ties of his pants to allow easier movement. Off went the half shirt he liked too much to want ruined, and some of the jewelry that could potentially swing or get caught on something. The circlet he'd reshaped his crown into was staying firmly in place, flaring hot and occasionally licking flame up into the air when he moved particularly fast.

 

Not as fast as Dirk. Still so much to learn.

 

“Because eventually you'll tire and dodging won't be as easy, and you'll NEED to know how to parry and block better than you do,” Dirk explained, annoyed as Dave continued to bounce around. He changed tactics then, losing his tried and true fighting stance in favor of shifting to copy Dave's quick steps, tracking him move for move. Dave's jaw set stubbornly as his dodging had to get faster and faster, trying to outrun Dirk instead of meeting his head on. Why was Dirk so insistent on doing THIS? John was more than happy to let him dodge and call it a job well done, but Dirk wouldn't let good enough be good enough.

 

He wanted perfect.

 

He wanted far more than Dave was interested in doing right now.

 

“Will you step off?” Dave cried, wobbling and just barely getting away as Dirk stabbed down into the ground inches in front of his toes, retracting the blade and slashing forward in an arc. Fragments of Dave's bangs fell free and to the ground, a scratch on the bridge of his nose starting to bleed. “I fight more than well enough for fighting with humans and it's not like I'd die anyway, I'm immortal!”

 

“Immortal or not, humans are constantly growing and changing, doing things they're not meant to do. Who am I to say that they'd not someday learn how to kill a god? Besides, if you piss one of us off enough, it'd be better to at least get a strike back in return instead of running constantly. Or is that not in line with YOUR fire?” Dirk said, pushing Dave's buttons, trying to piss him off enough to take a stand now that the dodging was starting to get sloppy. “Because MY fire was plenty strong enough to fight with.”

Dave finally attacked back, but it was only a few swats and a stab that caught up in Dirk's shirt. When it ripped, the older god grabbed the fabric and twisted to disrupt Dave's grip on his sword, throwing up a backhanded strike with his own blade. The younger was forced to abandon his weapon and lift both hands up in a solid block, the well worn cuffs at his wrists halting the sword and forcing him to skid back a few paces from the force of impact. Fire licked around his feet, scorched the ground beneath him as heat waved began to rise in the air like shallow mirrors.

“Oh, you want FIRE to fight with. Okay. I see. You just want to fight with fire, not sword practice.”

“You can channel fire into a sword, you'd have gotten plenty of hits back in if you had, now you don't have a weapon and have to use your fire, so MOVE,” Dirk barked, giving Dave little rest before changing position and attacking again with a bit more acrobatic flare. Instead of straight to the face, he jumped, trying to go over top of his lover to swing at his head, then swing again at his back on the way down. Dave was done dancing around, and flared the fire when Dirk went overhead, dropping down to one knee and aiming a sweep directly where Dirk landed. He pushed up when the elder started to wobble and catch himself again, starting to aim hits at his torso, catching fire to his already ripped shirt. Dirk dealt with the burning, needing to catch himself and block. This was more like it. Getting Dave active, getting him vicious while he was in control of the fire?

 

Exhilarating.

 

There was absolutely nothing quite like seeing his red eyes flash and flicker, like watching his expressions become more and more intense. Seeing his muscles tense and flex, watching him exert his will, feeling the sting when he managed to land hits..? All entrancing. The times the small god managed to knock his ass to the dirt was as good as foreplay for Dirk, truth be told, right up there with his soft touches and affectionate words. Rough housing was just par for the course, given the aspects Dirk controlled.

Another attack from Dirk was finally dodged and parried creatively, Dave arching his body away from the slick metal before grabbing at Dirk's hands and forcing the fire over them, making him drop the weapon and flinch back best he could. Burnt and surprised by Dave's headlong attack, Dirk was easier to flip to the ground, the small blonde crawling atop him to pin his upper arms down with his legs. Dave grinned wickedly as he stared down his own body at Dirk's face, heat licking his hair up and sparking here and there around the two of them in an enlarging halo.

 

“Awww, poor baby fall down?” Dave cooed, already knowing what was happening when Dirk failed to fight at all. They both knew Dave could be pinned fairly easily, could be kept flat on the ground by Dirk's size alone.. just as they both knew that there was no way Dirk would be fighting back right then. Not when Dave was warm and in charge and coursing power through his blood, mischief guiding his actions as much as affection. They both needed to wash up and change, needed a break to eat drink and be merry.

 

… Maybe after a kiss.

 

Or ten.

 

Actually, was there really anything planned for the day? Dirk was having trouble remembering once Dave leaned down to kiss him, biting lip lower lip and slipping his tongue into his mouth shortly after. Dave was a horrible tease in general, but not as much when it was something he really wanted, and after that much sparring and force and bitching between the two of them..? No, kissing was what he needed.

Or more, given how the blonde started scooting down from Dirk's upper arms to his stomach, and lower to straddle his hips, giving traction so he could grind forward with a soft groan. When Dirk moved to grasp his lover's hips, Dave pouted, but let him. Yes. He could deal with that. Good things came from those calloused, wrapped up hands. Wonderful things, so different from John's softer hands and the battle of wills between them, yet the same level of desire setting him ablaze. John was instinct and attitude, fickle needs and wants and fluid movements. Dirk was strategy and driving him to the edge but refusing to deliver till he was desperate enough, firm unwavering grip.

He was a god of sex, and it showed, and it pissed Dave off to no end.

 

“You're doing it again,” Dave muttered, leaning to continue his kissing even as he started to rock his hips, riding his body along the growing stiffness of Dirk's cock in hopes of getting it to full size sooner. Still internally debating on if he'd really do anything with it afterward, or just spend their time rolling around grinding till they both went mad.

“Doing what?”

“You're doing the whole lust thing again, aren't you, I can feel it. It's a different warm.. It tingles.”

Dirk smirked at him, turned the kissing around so he was the one guiding it, letting Dave stay up where he was now that he was so eagerly starting to ride along his dick. Why stop a good thing?

“Am not.”

“You're a liar, I can /feel/ it. What's the point of exerting your power on me?”

“Because you're so fucking cute when you're losing your mind for me,” Dirk purred, kissing Dave quiet when he started to point out the admitting. It was only a bit of power, really, and Dave had already been doing everything on his own. There was no need to add intensity... but it was certainly fun to do when the mood was right. He licked up to his lover's mouth, groaned when Dave braced his forearms alongside his head and worked his hips harder.

 

Pity they were alone, he'd have loved to get John involved, have him coax Dave's body back so he could watch the rise and fall of his narrow chest easier, loving to see his abdomen work at increasing speeds while he worked his lower body so much. Loved watching them kiss while Dave rode, or having his own mouth just as busy.

Dirk loved fighting, loved the energy it brought, but his other aspect ruled him just as much. Sex was intense as a battlefield if it was done right, and fuck did he love doing it right.

Dave groaned and rocked his hips harder, erect and straining at his pants by now, debating letting go of his control and just. Taking them off. Taking Dirk's off as well. If he couldn't get a quickie in, he could probably get SOMETHING. Anything. Anything at all, damn him, /damn him/ for that power. For not using nearly as often as Dave wanted. It added an extra level to his own bodily awareness that threw him for such a loop every time.

Dirk's grip at his hips came steadier, till finally Dave felt the flicker of power directly. He'd become more sensitive over the years, could tell when someone was influencing him more readily, though there was no way to stop it. In Dirk's case, it just meant that he was exceedingly aware of just how much his cock was aching, how good it would feel to have sex, and how thoroughly he was going to wreck Dirk at a later date when he wouldn't be able to add that extra layer of drive to things.

 

“Alright, no, nope, done. Fuck this. Pants: off. You: naked. Now,” Dave finally said, wavering where he sat, unable to stop squirming in place. The rubbing wasn't nearly enough now, wasn't nearly as satisfying. With Dirk laughing, Dave hopped like a frog from his gripping hands and ditched his clothing, kicking them off to the side in a pile. As soon as Dirk had lifted his hips and followed suit, Dave was back over top of him, knees square over his head in demand and his mouth kissing lower and lower along his abdomen with obvious plans.

 

Dirk sighed, guided the exhale in a cool breath against the inside of Dave's thighs.

 

“Alright, alright. Spoiled brat. We'll do everything YOU want to do..”

“If you're still good with your mouth, I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy what I want to do just as much,” Dave shot back as he finally hit pay dirt, grasping Dirk's dick at the base and squeezing till the elder god squirmed, licking a stripe up the shaft. He didn't latch on to the head and start suckling till Dirk had done the same, taking Dave's length deep into his mouth and bobbing his head, trying to grasp his hips to make him thrust a bit to push the envelope of what he could do on his own.

Oh, Dirk was able to gag and he knew it. But could Dave manage to make him do it on his own?

Apparently Dave was more than willing to attempt it, rocking his hips steadily to aim for Dirk's throat as he began to bob his own head, hips hitching now and then in the process as he got distracted. Sex wasn't just something Dave could fall into like a routine even after all this time. No, he was far too reactive for that. He moaned, took Dirk deep as he was able to without the urge to cough starting up, and finally hit a tempo he could work with.

 

“Keep your guard up,” Dirk shouted from somewhere to their right. “Stop dodging and BLOCK me! Parry, even! You know how to do this, it's time to practice it!”

Dave coughed and lurched his hips hard enough to make Dirk choke in surprise, the pair scrambling in confusion to come more upright from where they were flattened out and tangled up with each other. Dirk snatched Dave close, got his back up against his own chest, arms crossing to guard him out of habit as he tried to get a sense of what was happening.

It was.. them? Both of them? Bouncing and darting and swinging and fighting on the field, Dave looking tense and increasingly annoyed, Dirk looking fierce and unyielding.

 

“..What.. What the fuck is going on?” Dave whispered, secretly glad he was being held, all interest in sex gone now as his own confused terror replaced it and Dirk's influence shifted modes to defense and attack once more.

“I don't know,” he whispered.

“If the end goal is to not get hit at all, I'm doing -fine-! Why would I want to parry or block your attack when I can just dodge you all the time?”the other Dave shouted. Another dodge, another, and another near miss. They both knew what was happening, having experienced it minutes ago, and Dave reflexively tightened his fingers as Dirk swung the strike that would be blocked with the cuffs.

 

The fighting pair froze in place on impact, wavered.. then disappeared from the battlefield without a trace as if phasing out of reality. Chilled to the bone, Dave stared at the empty, scorched ground and then looked up at Dirk again.

 

“... Dirk?”

 

“We need to go. Now,” the elder urged, releasing his grip on Dave only so the younger god could go and collect his things as quickly as he could. Dirk himself stood up and yanked his belongings on, shouldering the pieces that were too scorched or burnt or be worth wearing anymore. Something wasn't sitting right with him. This was something that he'd never heard of before, and they needed to learn more about it in case it happened again.

“Where are we going?” Dave asked, dusting himself down as the last layer went on, stomping to adjust his boots grip of his heel.

“Home, for a while. We can ask the others if they're seeing anything, or if this is just.. something that happens,” Dirk said uncertainly. The scent of scorched earth and sex had fallen flat to an infiltrating scent of void and confusion.

 

Don't be afraid. Don't ever be afraid. Be strong and calm.

 

Learn.

 


	3. Looking Too Deep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When consulting the future, not even a seer always knows what to expect. Rose has grown into her abilities the longer she's held goddess status, and while that means in many ways they're stronger, her precision point viewing of lines can either miss the original intended aim, or hit on something far more dangerous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr mirror: http://themockingcrows.tumblr.com/post/149061809022/actuality-flux-ch-3-looking-too-deep

“No, you don't understand, it wa-”

“I understand just fine, please breathe Dave.”

“No, Rose, you don't understand at all! IT WAS US! Doing exactly what we'd been doing earlier! We were right there, moving, fighting, sparring. Every move was the same.”

 

Rose sighed a bit and rubbed her temple. So much for a peaceful afternoon with Maryam.. It'd been quite some time since they just got to sit back and take a day to breathe and relax, amused by how a world with less and less direct dependency on the gods required more and more babysitting to excel as much as they were from behind the scenes. Off where they scarcely even recalled them aside from a habitual gesture or prayer, seasonal offerings and holidays. After raising a hand to get Dave to shoosh and giving an apologetic glance to her date, she picked up her teacup and took a long, steady sip. Savoring it while she could.

 

“Now. I've heard you explain things already, a few frantic times, and I've gotten about all I can get from those words,” she said softly. “I don't know how that would be possible, and I'm not entirely sure what to offer as an explanation. Or, really, why are you asking me?”

 

The flame flashed in Dave's eyes, but he bit it down, kept his temper. Calm. Keep it tamped down, let it out only when it was needed. She'd done nothing wrong, had no reason to feel any of the sting from him or any need to witness his potential tantrums, it'd been at least a few years since his last eruption, come on. Behave, stop acting like a spoiled brat, she might have a knack for the future, even bits of reading minds and reading people, but she was also sprung on quite suddenly. This was her ability, not his, and it was always changing and adjusting as she matured. 

 

“Because you're the one with future sight. I was wondering if you could, you know. Take a look ahead? Maybe see if there's any kinds of hints?” he asked, thankful when Dirk stepped up behind him and lifted him off his feet by the waist. Better to be held and soothed than to stay pissed off and frustrated forever.

“That's rather vague.”

“What's vague about it! Rose, come on, you can just. Look. Look forward. It can't be that hard to do, even mortals do it!”

 

Rose fixed him with an icy stare as she sipped her drink again, then stood up. With graceful steps, reaching a foot back automatically to shuffle the longer portion of her skirts into order, Rose walked towards her bookshelves and supplies. Each god and goddess was given a space of their own, a 'room', though it could be widened as needed, to do with what they wished. A respite when the world and the throne was just not enough to be comforting. Somewhere they could lock others away from them, if they so chose. Rose's room was a garden, grassy and flickering sunshine in a pleasant temperature over flowers and shrubbery, speckled light through boughs of many trees. She'd tried to ask Roxy how these spaces worked before, and all she'd gotten was a wink and laughter till she stopped asking.

Her supplies and books were held on shelves, some standard wood and nail, others settled into still living tree and vine that had been coaxed into performing a job other than growing rich and green and succulent. Between Jade, Maryam, and occasionally Roxy and Jane, Rose had managed to collect different plants from all around the world, with many of the gifts going on to flower beautifully and seed the surrounding areas that she devoted to the greenery and grass. At least they smelled sweet and pleasant now, since that one large, rather disgusting outlier was singled out and removed.

 

Really, who ever heard of a corpse flower? Certainly not her till Jane happened.

Never. Again.

 

“What are you up to?” Dave asked. “Are you going to look?”

“What do you think I'm doing, Dave, baking bread? Be patient.” She clicked irritably at him and took up a dark, shallow bowl, pouring water from a jug on the same shelf into it before coming back over to the table and setting it down. “Dirk, go ahead and set Dave down so you can both see clearly for this.”

“... Can't you just tell us?” Dirk asked, a bit confused as well. “You're a goddess.”

“Yes, but I'm a goddess who already knows you'll want to see whatever -I- see, so why not kill two birds with one stone and save you the two minutes of frustrated whining for clarification you were about to do if I'd just gone ahead and looked on my own. Look. You can just focus on the water, and we'll all take a peek together.”

“So you can see into the future to know what happened?” Dave asked, impressed that she was able to do it off such an expansive request.

“No, I'd be trying to find out what happened best I can, there's no use looking into the future for that Dave. The event has already passed. I'd be looking for connected incidents, or a point where you would have an answer already. I could pick up on it then. This isn't a matter of When or Where, but How.”

“But-”

“I don't need to look into any damned bowl to know you're getting on my nerves, will you please relax and let me work?” Rose sighed. To think she'd seen Dave grow and develop for this long.. Strange, really. He'd been maturing nicely before John and Dirk stepped in, before fire was dumped into his veins, and with it the fickleness and rage. ..It wasn't all bad. But when she was annoyed already, it certainly felt that way. Her own temper made it easier to forget the sweet, silly times.

“... I'm sorry,” Dave said as his feet hit the ground finally, looking sheepish and rubbing his arm. “Just. Believe me, if you had been there, if you'd seen the same thing, it would've spooked you something awful too. That's not something that's supposed to happen, it was like seeing a ghost but.. Us.”

“I accept your apology, but I may not so readily in the future. Keep working on your temper before it starts consuming you again like it used to, I don't like smelling smoke constantly.” Raising her hands, Rose made a few passes over the surface of the bowl with closed eyed, breathing slowly to focus. When her hands paused and tensed, her eyes opened wide, blank and full of light as if she held the interior of a star within her skull. The same intensity of light shot up from the bowl like a physical force before it subsided and settled downward again, roiling before going completely flat and still like a sheet of glass.

“Now,” she urged. “..Let's take a look and see what we can see.”

 

In all this time, Dave had never thought to ask her to do something like this, never knew Rose was CAPABLE of showing what her visions brought her to others. There was some thought toward sharing thoughts, but.. Seeing it so clearly was strange, especially with it being that garbled. Flashes of the gods and goddesses were flashing across the bowl as if in high speed, jittering forward and back repeatedly before flashing to different views and times. When was this? Where was this? The background was hard to make out.

 

“...Is that Megido?” Dave asked, gesturing to the bowl and the long, wild hair of the goddess that he could recognize.

“Shh, let her work,” Dirk urged. “..But. Yeah, it does look like her, she keeps showing up. There's Pyrope too. ..There's you.”

“Oh, there's Jade,” Dave said with a grin, though it was short lived. The light brightened intensely behind her figure before going pitch black, startling the young god back a pace. “Was that supposed to happen?

Rose frowned, eyes still bright, and moved her hands over top the bowl again to hunt a source out. That wasn't a viable path any longer.

“No, but nothing is absolute. There's options, there's paths. Those aren't entirely my specialty. I see the bigger picture. Just means I need to focus on another po- ah, there we go,” she said as the bowl became bright again. Jade was no longer in sight, but the flashes of other gods and goddeses continued to flicker in and out. Again, the light flared bright then went black. Rose started to look frustrated as she continued to hunt for a proper viewing point.

Dirk's brow furrowed as he started to pick up a pattern.

“... We can see everyone, and then they keep getting hit with darkness. I'm seeing more of Megido than I've ever seen before though. ..Where has she even BEEN lately?” he asked. “I know she holds the book, she keeps track of time. But. ..Where is she now?”

 

Maryam placed her hand on Rose's upper back and gently rubbed in circles, hoping to be soothing.

“Don't bother asking that, Dirk, you know as well as I do that Megido goes where she pleases and does as she pleases. Even if you could track her down and talk to her, she'd likely ignore your questions. She owes nobody her words. Much less to a god as young as yourself,” she said, rubbing a bit more firmly when she noticed sweat forming on Rose's brow.

She was searching, hunting, stabbing a bit more blindly than she liked. When you were used to knowing and understanding things in at least their general sense, unpredicted things were.. upsetting to say the least.

“I don't understand,” Rose said. “I just. Don't. Understand. I was just trying to glance forwards along your paths first, then along everyone else's paths that came to mind, I keep hitting dark patches,” Rose muttered after another blackout.

“Dark patches?”

“Yes, points in the future where I can't see for whatever reason. I've been trying to find a workaround, but.. It's confusing. I've never had this happen so many times in a row before.”

Maryam touched her own cheek for a moment, trying to think.

“How about you focus on me?” she offered. “I'm not going anywhere. Same with Jane. We guide birth and life, beginnings. We couldn't really hide even if we wanted to, the urge and call of the world is too strong for us to ignore. I should be plenty bright on my own, more so with you on my arm.”

 

With a twitch of her lip, Rose tried to focus on Maryam. The goddess flashed and jumped here and there, a temple, a city. Dave could spot Leijon and Jake, but he grimaced when he spotted multiple giant beasts laying around on the ground. Dead?. More flashes of Megido, jarringly staring straight out of the bowl as if looking at them all, grinning broad enough to make her dimples stand out. Dave leaned closer to the bowl, sorting out all the figures he could trace as they raced and danced and flickered around from scene to scene. Watching the future was confusing, how could Rose keep up and sort it all into something coherent? Her talents were more amazing than he'd originally assumed.

The bright light didn't go missing immediately as it had with the other failed viewing points, but instead suddenly turned red as spilled blood. Startled, Dave jumped back, Dirk grabbing him and turning to place himself between the bowl and Dave, a carryover habit of protection that he was pretty sure wasn't going to leave him any time soon. The sunlight in the room space dimmed, and the pale strands of Rose's hair looked pink in the unsettling brightness, red mingling with the bright white in her eyes. She looked concerned, scared, but kept her focus as the water began to vibrate in place like a living thing.

A looming figure with a clawed hand, reaching out before itself in the otherwise intense brightness of the bowl came into focus. Wild eyed and sharp of fang, grotesque, roaring to the flashing sky in slow, intense, horrifying clarity before turning its attention towards the surface of the water. The bowl didn't go dark like earlier so much as it simply returned to normal water as it spontaneously splashed from the bowl and disrupted the physical surface as if being probed from the other side. Rose's eyes went brighter before losing their light entirely and going blank as stones. It took several hard blinks for her pupils and irises to return, dazed, wavering where she sat.

 

“Rose! Rose, are you alright?” Maryam asked, ignoring the spilled water and curling herself forward to sweep Rose up into a tight hug before pulling back to hold her cheeks, tipping her head this way and that. “Your eyes are normal at least... Oh, what was that, even? Are your visions normally that interactive? You've never told me they could be that harrowing.”

“They're.. They're not!” Rose said breathlessly, pushing away from the table to keep in her lover's arms and put more distance between herself and the dribbling water, glancing up towards the 'sky' of her room. It had begun to darken, clouding over and threatening to bring rain to her gardens during her upset. She needed to focus, needed to keep it clear. Sunshine would be helpful after that. No dark spaces, no shadows. “I've never had this happen before, even during bad premonitions. Never had the blank spots, never had the.. the whatever that was. I don't know what this is. What that was.”

“What about what happened with us?” Dave asked, shying back at the haunted look on Rose's face when she fixed him with a stare.

“I still don't know. I'm going to need to think on that more. ...Later. Is it an emergency?” she asked softly. “I'd need time even if it was one, but if I can have a little while before I HAD to look again, I'd prefer it. That was jarring.”

 

A patch of grass near her shelves wavered briefly, bent, before John appeared. He was pulling the hood of his jacket back and dusting himself off, orienting himself after not only arriving home but passing into Rose's space right afterwards in hopes of spotting her. Oh! Just his luck, not only her but Maryam, Dave and Dirk as well! Grinning broadly, John lifted off the ground to float over to the table gathering, draping around Dirk's shoulders and planting a kiss to his jawline.

“Heeeey! I didn't know you'd already be here, excellent, saves me the time of hunting you down. Rose, I was wondering, could I ask you to do a viewing for me?” John asked in an eager rush of words, legs bending so his feet were pressing against his own ass, back arching to allow the movement to become more exaggerated. Walking and blending in around mortals was so fucking tiring, he had to WALK and had to be PATIENT and had to not be as bendy and loose as he wanted to be for longer lengths of time. What a drag!

 

Rose shook her head and leaned into Maryam's side, nuzzling her slim neck. Her cool touch was soothing, comforting, familiar.  
  
“No, I'm not doing any viewings right now, I need to rest. What would you be needing me to look into, though?”

“Oh, it's a favor for Jade. She said she's having a lot of trouble with her viewing?” he explained, clinging like a balloon on a string from Dirk's left arm as he was grasped and moved to his empty side, leaving Dave to the right and thus uncrowded. “Gets to a point, for some time now, and everything's a blackout. It's messing with her business really bad an-”

“Is that all she sees?” Rose interrupted. “A blackout? It just.. stops. Nothing else? Nothing red?”

“Uh, no, it just sounded like absolutely nothing. Total blank space. Why? You have any flashes about her lately or something?” he asked, smirking a bit. “It apparently wasn't always there, it's relatively new and it's supposedly pretty close to hitting.”

“How new is 'relatively new', John,” Rose asked. “Decade new? Week new?”

“I, uh. I kind of didn't ask for clarification, whoops. Sixteen years might be the most recent?”

She raised her brows at him. “And you're only mentioning it NOW?”  
  
“It never came up before. Mostly because I wasn't actually meeting up with her when she asked, which is my bad, but really what would that change? Sixteen years is a long nap.” John shrugged, rolled in place so he could be more comfortably upside down, the hood of his jacket hitting Dirk's shoulder with a soft thwup and being slid to rest at the back of his arm instead. “She said she'd have asked Megido but she's still doing her non-response thing, and she's wanted to ask you but you've been really busy.”

“Exceedingly so, but. ..This is new for me. Very recent.”

“..So you've had the same thing happen? Well, damn, how perfectly timed. What are the odds?”

“She wasn't looking for it specifically,” Dave piped up. “She was trying to look ahead and see why Dirk and I saw an out of sync copy of ourselves after a spar.”

“A copy?”

“Yes,” he said with a nod, ready to chatter and tell his story anew. “We'd sparred and wound up on the ground for a quick round an-”

 

“Please, not again, I need to think about this,” Rose groaned, rubbing her temples. “I don't understand, I can see things far in the future in glimpses if my aim was right and I'm remembering properly, but I'd not noticed this.. thing. Jade picked up on this potentially years ago, but can't see past it at all. I've been more looking at current times, and helping Pyrope. It... It hasn't gone dark except for when I'm looking at gods and goddesses. Not the humans.”

 

Maryam gave Rose more space, wiped at the water with her sleeve and pushed the offending bowl back, then poured some more tea for Rose to sip at. Should still be warm enough to be some kind of comfort.

“Perhaps,” the elder goddess offered, “you are picking up on something that will affect us more than mortals. Jade is still a mortal, but she's hardly a standard one. She's more ingrained in our affairs than she has any right to be, sticky fingered thing, but it could be a reason. Seeing past that point into the future, if you're remembering correctly, likely means that either whoever you were viewing will be unaffected, or everyone will be unaffected after this change occurs. If you're remembering wrong, and everything halts then, well.. perhaps after the event happens, you'll be able to see again. We've all been caught blindsided a few times. You and Dave are living proof of that.”

“...That could very well be,” Rose agreed, nodding. Maryam always had such a way with words, especially when they were being used to comfort and calm. “I don't like not knowing, though, and that was one hell of a change. There was death, there was that.. that THING. ...Could it be an attack?”

Dave grimaced. “Could it be another god? Someone more destructive than fire passing and all that mess, maybe?”

“I don't know, Dave. Look. I'll look into this, and ask Pyrope. If you all could ask others, maybe also try to contact Megido, I'd appreciate it a lot. I need to rest and collect myself again, there's no way anything I got right now would be very useful. I don't even know if that thing could potentially see US while we were seeing IT. I'll need to try sorting out safe ways to peek, and try to look far forward, and perhaps track backwards instead of forward.”

 

“Will that be easy?” Dirk asked. “Tracking backwards I mean.”

“No, it's not going to be easy. None of it's easy. It's not like protecting myself against some physical attack, I'd just regenerate if I were killed. ..I don't know what happens if my views are tainted.”

Maryam glowered at the bowl as if betrayed and muttered sourly that she was going to destroy it and give Rose a fresh one, keep her safe as could be with the best opportunities for success in her endeavors. “I'll talk to Leijon, too. I see her often enough as it is.”

“But the dead animals, the great beasts,” Dave started, only to be shushed.

“I saw the bowl same as you, Dave. It's inevitable that I'll go there. ..So. I'll go early. Perhaps that view wasn't immediate, it could have been a point further on in time.”

“Not every view of the future is fact. Even for me,” Rose reminded him. “I'd say Human Intervention is what alters fate, but we all know better than that by now. ...Really, though. If you all could give me some peace, I would appreciate it.”

 

She looked tired, worn very thin. Unsettled. When Maryam stood to go, Rose reached up and gripped at her skirt, glancing upwards.

“... Just a while longer..? Before you leave.”

“Of course, love,” Maryam said softly, leaning to hold Rose close, to scoop her up and carry her close in favor of going to settle somewhere more comfortable and further away from the tainted table. John, Dave, and Dirk took their leave with a puff of air and a suggestion of motion like heat waves, leaving them alone in the garden once more. “Of course.”

 


	4. Visiting Vanishment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Rose still deeply rattled from her horrifying visions, Maryam spends some time talking her down, and holding tight to the safety that love brought along with it. There's investigating to be done, people to check on and clues to find, but that needs to wait until the holder of her heart is satisfied and calm once more, safe to be on her own again. When the goddess checks in with Leijon, ominous warning and a vague vision of the future in hand, what Could go wrong may need to take a step back in the face of what new troubles present themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr mirror: http://themockingcrows.tumblr.com/post/159481383862/actuality-flux-ch-4-visiting-vanishment

     Rose sighed and finally felt calm. True calm. Maryam's room always offered her respite, and in her lover's arms, it was an extra level of comfort as well. Rather than stay in her room once the boys left and be stuck looking at the table, feeling the vibrations of what she had seen in the air or in the back of her mind, Maryam had decided to take her away entirely to a space untouched by her viewings. While her own room was living bookshelves and growing plants, soft shadows and swaying light, this one was the smell of soft, green, new things and the subtle warmth that not even the sun could offer.

     Maryam's room was bright and comforting as a spring day, but the spaces were more separate than other rooms Rose had been in, or even her own gradiently organized habitat. One space was a lively garden, flowers in bright colors and climbing trails of baby's breath and aromatic herbs tucked away from the forever blooming perfume from the lilac bushes. The other, closed and comfortable and slightly dimmer, was a cocoon of solitude. Blankets abounded, books were piled in different neatly stacked shelves, cloth and fabrics were settled here and there, and so too was a constant sense of safety.

     No lingering darkness could trespass in such a clean, bright place. The only inch of darkness welcome was Rose herself, a fond joke considering she no longer leaked the dark oil that she had while at the end of her human life. Figurative habits took the place of the literal now.

     Though she had been set on her feet upon entering the grassy space, Rose took a moment or two to begin walking towards the bed, distracted by her surroundings as ever, so much to see and enjoy. Upon arrival she promptly dropped her arms to her sides and threw herself face first onto the welcoming blankets and the layers of soft bedding piled beneath them, heaving out a heavy sigh as the weight of the world fell from her shoulders. True, it would return soon enough.. but for now, there was safety and respite.

     Time to breathe.

     “Do you want anything to drink?” Maryam asked. When Rose grimaced at the idea, she grinned. “No, I meant a drink-drink. No more purposeful visions for you today, something to relax with.”

     “Are you offering something soothing, or something to knock me for several loops? Because the background noise visions I can ignore pretty well already, and I can have my hands slapped if I try to scry.”

     “Whichever would be most helpful for you right now,” Maryam said, coming to sit by Rose's side while she thought. When she took too long to make a decision as they sat in silence, the elder goddess tipped herself to lay across Rose's upper back, hugging her tight. “Or would I be the most helpful?”

     “You're already always the most helpful, you know that..”

     Maryam grinned and shifted her weight again to slip off Rose's back, tangling her up in her arms so Rose's side was pressed against her chest and slinging a leg over her thighs to fully cocoon her lover best she could without disrupting the blankets they lay atop. More freedom to pet at her and cuddle her neck and face at the same time this way, which was always a bonus.

     “You flatter me. But, really, now would probably be a good time to enjoy something soothing to take the edge off, and to help fill any gaps of worry. I can hold and comfort you, but I'm fairly sure we both know I need to go and see what's happening. I was in your visions, and the path I took makes sense.. I need to speak with Leijon about this. Jake as well. I don't want to leave you alone and upset in the interim of that however. I'd rather go and travel once you're happy as I can get you, so when I come back safely I'll be seeing the same smiling face that I always keep close in my heart.”

     “You're sappy,” Rose said with a grin. “You're also babying me, it feels like.”

     “It comes with the territory, Rose, I baby everyone to a degree. But it's not my intention right now, telling you all this,” Kanaya promised, squeezing her tight and kissing at the crook of her neck with soft, warm lips. “I want to leave and come back without causing you worry, or making you want to use your abilities to find me. No scrying for the day. Rest is what you need. No more anxious happenings.”

     “If something goes wrong, I'd rather know!” Rose started, only to be shooshed gently by cool fingertips pressing to her lips.

     “Rose, even if something were to 'go wrong', I would be able to handle it. Nothing in this world or whatever lies beyond it could keep me from coming back to you. I don't want you working yourself into tangles trying to poke and prod at a potential future trying to find where something would go wrong. I'm a goddess of beginnings, of birth, even if an end approached me, there would -always- be a new beginning following after. You've seen how many times John has died, right?” Maryam pointed out, moving her long fingers in a petting motion along to edges of Rose's face and cheeks, then down towards her collarbone. “If I die, I would simply come back. I'm not entirely certain WHERE I would come back as opposed to the precise spot my death occurred, but I'm capable of it as any other god or goddess and would come back to you soon as I was able. I've just got much less experience with my own rebirth than with all the others I guide.”

     “.. Right. Right, I keep forgetting that,” Rose murmured. “I still cling to a lot of values and beliefs from humanity, and death for us was extremely final. We had more hope for the life beyond this than what was here.”

     Maryam continued to move her hand down Rose's throat and along the front of her ribs, pausing to gently press against a breast as if appraising and appreciating the weight it held before continuing down along her stomach to gently rub in circles near her navel. Familiar, sweet touches that never failed to bring warmth to Rose's very core.

     “What sorts of beliefs were they? The hopes for this other world? I don't think I've ever actually asked.”

     “Well,” Rose said as she cuddled down and relaxed under the familiar hand, reaching down to lace their fingers and squeeze a bit. “It was meant to be better than our life, if we were good. We would reap the benefits of a virtuous life. For some it meant coming back to the world someday as a new baby for a new life, for others it meant staying forever in this perfect paradise, getting to meet and wander with all our gods and goddesses in our midst like mindful, wonderful parents. Others I think believed it would be more of a period of paradise and learning then moving on to nothingness or the rebirth again.”

     “Well, that sounds lovely, but I feel a bit bad for leading others on. None of us traipse about with the dead except Makara,” Maryam said, clasping at one of Rose's hands before moving their joined hands in a gently patterned jiggle, glad to feel Rose's muscles finally start to relax. “There's a sense of happiness when there's new life born, though. At least for me. You've felt the same brief sensation when someone worships you, right?”

     “The tingle? I like the tingle,” Rose said with a grin. “But it is very different than I thought it would be. All of it is. ..Maryam does it hurt to die like this?”

     “I'm not going to die,” she said firmly again, “but even if I did the pain is brief. I'd more be curious as to how I'd be reformed, sometimes we come out a bit different than we began, and I've not passed in quite some time.”

     “Different? How so?”

     “Well. Dirk died once and came back with long hair. He kept it tied back for ages before cutting it, it looked quite nice on him. He doesn't change much physically, but I know once in a while he'd leave certain battle scars and let others fade away, or fix his crooked nose till it was broken again,” she said. “Pyrope used to be much curvier in form, much shorter of limb as well for many cycles, but she said she was tired of being short and enjoyed being taller now. I've no doubt she'll go back to how she used to be, with how fickle she is. John tends to keep a similar appearance since he's so vain, but he changes his clothing any time he revives, calls it a fresh start. I'm fairly sure there's new piercings half the time too. I expect him to return with tattoos any time.”

     “Did you look different in the past, then? During different times alive?”

Maryam grinned at her.

     “I looked different as well, yes. I had the same symbols of my shrine marked upon my flesh, unwoven spirals and loops like fresh spring seedlings unfurling. I kept my hair long, as well. It was a time of beauty and freedom, that youth.. I changed to looking a bit older and less intense to blend in easier. I realized that while the new life enjoyed my bright appearances, sometimes those being blessed by the gift were a bit confused by me and didn't focus as much on the life as who had given it to them. A soft glow now and then and looking this way was easier to sooth with than when paired with busy lines back then I think. More.. maternal? Matronly. I don't know how best to describe it.”

     “Youth? It was that long ago?” Rose asked, surprised. Wow. John died as many times as he had clothes in his wardrobe, it sounded like, and here Maryam was going on about changing her appearance to be less striking because humans were more focused on her than the blessing they'd received. It made sense, but still didn't sit quite right with her for some reason. “If you ever reform, even without death, I'd love to see you wearing your lines. Humans can deal with you as you are, and if they're too foolish to focus.. well. That's their fault. Look how you want for yourself now. They're not huddled in the dark with sticks fighting shadows alone any longer, they'd love you however you appeared. We were taught to respect the changes of gods and goddesses, and welcome them. We'd know them by their feeling, not always their appearance. Gods in disguise and all that.”

     Maryam kicked up her usual steady glow even brighter, twinkling stars instead of soft moonbeams, and chuckled in amusement.

     “I'll be sure to show you them someday, pick out something I'd like and that I'm fairly sure you'd enjoy as well. I've got a feeling you're calmer now, yes?” Maryam asked, kissing the side of Rose's head when she sighed.

     “Yes, a good deal. I know if I dwell on the thought too long, if I let my mind weave back, it'll be just as bad as before. But for now, it's not as urgent feeling any longer.”

     “Will you be alright with me going to check in with Leijon now, then? Or should I remain till you fall asleep instead?” Maryam spoke softer now, not wanting to pull away just yet no matter the answer. Things had been so busy lately, just getting to hold Rose close like this was something precious to not be squandered away or taken for granted. The reason for the cuddle might have been something sad originally, but now it was a gift.

     “I'd prefer you to stay, but I already know you'll go eventually. ..Maybe since you saw as well, you'll be able to change the fate I saw. Perhaps what I saw was even incorrect, or could be avoided entirely if you leave at an earlier time.” Rose worried her lip for a moment before continuing. “Perhaps you'll see Megido, catch her in a good mood, get some information out of her about what she's been up to for so long.”

     “Ah yes, for I am the Megido whisperer.”

     Rose pinched Maryam's side till she laughed and slapped at her hand to make her stop.

     “I'm being serious you know. You have a way with people.”

     “Perhaps that is why I'm the one to go see Leijon then, instead of the others,” Maryam said, slowly beginning to get up from the tangle so she could rise to her feet and straighten her clothing out.          “Jake could likely speak to her about it, but without knowing these particular ins and outs, I don't think much success would be had as someone with my specialty. I do hope the beasts are not dead though, it would absolutely destroy her, they're like her children.”

     Rose remained on the bedding and shifted, rolling to her stomach and rising to her elbows, not feeling like getting out of bed yet. Perhaps she'd do her best to nap once Maryam went traveling.

     “If they are, I assume more can be born. They wouldn't all drop dead at once, right? You'd be able to help more safely arrive?”

     A look of worry crossed Maryam's features and she tightened her hands into fists for a flex before letting them hang loose at her sides again.

     “If they are to be born, I can help them arrive. But if there is nothing to birth more great beasts, there is nothing for me to help be born. They are not spawned out of thin air, Rose, they are created the same as any other creature that is born. I can urge some miracles occasionally, gift a birth that would not have happened.. but without something to give that birth, no beasts would arise in the forest again.”

     “No great beasts.. what a thought.”

     “A grim one that I hope is a true flaw to your vision. May some of the infants survive whatever future you held in your grasp, let their hope be strong enough to let them thrive.”

     Turning and bending, Maryam took a moment to take a proper kiss from Rose's lips, fitting herself into place and stroking the side of her uplifted jawline with the pads of her fingers before letting her bright glow fade down again. “Try to rest while I'm gone. If you wind up leaving, I'll try to catch up when I return. Perhaps we can go somewhere else, make a day of it, take in a nice view? There were some places you wanted to go with me eventually that you caught glimpses of, right? Like the grove on the mountain?”

     “The one with the ivy and the flowers that smell like plums, that's the one,” Rose said without missing a beat, lowering her upper body so she was resting her cheek against her folded forearms, wondering if she could lure in a nap by getting into a more prepared position. Troubled mind or not, the callback to her origins was hard to ignore.

     “You can tell me about it again when I get back, and if nothing else is prepared to set itself ablaze, we should be able to slip out and have a good evening together,” Maryam promised.

     “Shouldn't be any trouble with sudden fires, Dave is with John and Dirk, he should be plenty entertained enough to keep from being a destructive little gremlin.”

     “Some things never change,” Maryam sighed as she headed for the doorway, popping it open with a steady arm and turning for a final farewell before exiting to the darkness.

 

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

     “How long did she know,” Leijon asked, voice angry, tense.

     “Not long,” Maryam promised.

     “How. Long. Did. She. Know,” the goddess demanded, growing louder. “How long did she know this was happening, or going to happen? How long could I have had to prevent this from potentially happening?”

     “Leijon, she only saw this earlier this very day. Rose had no reason to look towards anything like this before now, or you'd have been told,” Maryam promised, frown touching her lips.

     “So what am I to believe? That she's seen so many things and never once spotted whatever tragedy is supposed to befall MY creatures, or that this is all supposed to start happening en mass soon?”

     Leijon had already been on edge when Maryam turned up, not enjoying sudden visitors at the temple aside from those devoted enough to her ways to come seeking the spaces out to give offerings, but allowances had been made. Maryam was one of the goddesses her own world was intrinsically in balance with, forever dancing in a circle of birth, life, and death.

     “Please. Really, there was no way to know this before now. Something may have changed to cause this to be a potential future, you need to remember that's how the sight works. Nothing is truly set in stone, what will be will be, but only if you take all the steps needed to get precisely to that point. We found out, and now you're being told. There were a great many troubling things she saw, not just things to do with you, if you recall.”

     “When will it happen, and how do I fix it. Were they just... dead? Laying there? Were they sick? Slain?” she asked, words becoming even more intense at the idea of someone purposefully taking down all of her beasts by the herd. “Will it spread to the human's beasts?”

     “It wasn't that clear or detailed, I'm sorry. Just that they were laying dead,” Maryam said softly. “All I know is what I saw, which may change at any time. We are just as confused as you are, but you already know if something was to be said about this to you, I'd say it. I dislike playing the same games we play with humans when it comes to working with each other,” Maryam promised.

     The view from the temple had changed over the years, improved in some ways and fallen further apart in others. As humans grew denser in population in the cities, the urge to return to their roots gave way to those who made pilgrimages to put in effort at beautifying Leijon's temple. There were usually some form of offerings around for her, new polished offering bowls and trays and platters, incense and cleaned down places to put smoked meats and dried vegetables and grains above repaired floors.

     Sometimes they left money, which was essentially worthless to her, but which Jake took with him back to the cities whenever he went around. Supposedly, he and John would find those who were down on their luck, hoping and praying for change, and give them a small windfall or arrange for them to locate the coins and strange looking bills on their own. He promised her that he tended to aim towards people who didn't feel destructive, or who tended properly to the animals in their care, and made sure there were leads back to her as a source to gain more followers or at least more direction in which to lead their second chance on life. Jake's judgment in these matters seemed more hit than miss, so Leijon was content.

     Rarely, humans would camp out in the temple and near its grounds for the evening, leaving with no complaints from the goddess nor her protege so long as they tended their circles of fire properly and took whatever rubbish they brought into her woods away with them when they finally left.

     It was soothing actually, that scent of old moss and fresh water and smoke this far in the quiet coolness of the woods. It spoke of age and time unchanging, memories of when she'd visit humans clustered around their fires, ready to fight the moon itself if it disappeared from the sky for too long. She wanted to sit down and relax, savor it, maybe even have a drink if she could get Leijon to lower her guard and relax again. Never took forever, if memory served Maryam right. Just needed patience.

     “Then I'm going to stay still and fend off whatever I can if it approaches, and try to fix what I can. I refuse to let these animals die. They're too precious to me, they're the guardians just as much as I am, and I am sick to the teeth of outside forces forcing change on me and mine,” Leijon said, stance taking on a more fluid saunter as she stalked the front of the temple, unable to just stand still any longer.

     Part of what was upsetting her so much right now was simply that until Maryam had appeared, nothing felt amiss. Nothing for now, at least. But when would it happen? Would it even happen at all? Was there still something that could be done..? Future sight was bullshit, and if she could blind the seer, Leijon was sure she would in a heartbeat. Not seeing something coming was normal, tragedy was tragedy yes, but normal. Seeing something coming swathed in Maybe and Perhaps and Nearly with little way to know for certain if it's a Definitely till the moment happens? Maddening.

     “If the giant beasts are well, are the animals the humans rely on for food well?”

     “Far as I know, yes. There's been no outcry to me, and nothing being put on offer to ward off signs of illness that I have heard. The same animals being fed and tended in larger numbers for a larger cluster of humans, nothing to report there.”

     “..Is there anything you want to do just in ca-”

     “Maryam, you're fussing. I need you to stop fussing, and let me do my job. You do yours, I do mine, we overlap and clasp hands as needed, but please. If there were sudden mass death of animals, or the forests were going vacant, I would feel it sure as I felt the ache of the encroaching civilization before they turned their sights elsewhere than the deep sanctuaries.”

     The tall goddess sighed, shaking her head slowly. She could feel a headache coming on.

     “I know I'm fussing, but I'm worried. You're so connected to your creatures, the fact that there was such an ominous thing that Rose saw.. I needed to come check in.”

     “It's not the old days, Maryam, save your sweet words for your little light. ..But thank you,” Leijon said. “I'll stick to myself here, and check in if needs be. Jake can handle the cities, there's no need for me to go anywhere right now. If there's a threat, the beasts need me more than any human could. They can take care of themselves in the beds they've made.”

     “..Well. I mean. It would be a little bit of an issue if their animals all died as well. It could potentially mean a lot of deaths, huge spreading disasters.”

     Leijon shrugged and gave Maryam a hard look.

     “More work for you and Jane, then, and a much better set of decades for me in exchange,” she said cooly, satisfied to see the slight bristle in Maryam's body language. They may get along well, they may work together, but it was always fun to just as easily turn that around and get under her skin. Keep her on her toes.

     Good. She was prettier when she was a little annoyed and that jade color in her eyes stood out even more against the growing intensity of her glow.

     They didn't get to edge further towards argument nor peace after that. A flurry of activity, darting ever closer, caught Leijon's attention and made her focus solely to the side. Who..? Oh. Jake. She'd know that jumpy teleportation style travel anywhere, but the accompanying feeling was one of alarm. Before she could call out to him to see what felt off, she was jumping and hissing at a sudden hand on her shoulder. Roxy jumping out of one of her dark voids without a whisper of sound in front of the temple, grip tight on the goddess's shoulder, expression grim, was not a sight Maryam had expected to see today during this visit.

     “You're still here, good! Good. We need you to be not-here,” she said hurriedly. “Well. I mean, not-here like not in this particular spot, not gone entirely. We don't need more of that.”

     “What are you going on about? I'm not going anywhere, I'm needed here,” Leijon insisted, swatting at Roxy's hand to make her step off. “Jake's coming this way, have him go wherever it is you're talking about, he can handle it I'm sure.”

     “I couldn't get him to stop rushin' but we're here for the same reason, he's going to want you to go as well.”

     “Where? I already said I'm not going anywhere.”

     Jake finally came close enough to switch to normal running, shouting as he came.

     “LEIJON! Leijon, come quick, please! Please, something's wrong! I need help!” he all but bellowed, slowing as he drew nearer, realizing Roxy was already there beside the goddess, and focusing on Maryam himself now. “Maryam you too, -please-, something terrible has happened,” he begged, leaning over his own knees to take in heavy gulps of air.

     “Shhh, shh, take a breath. Please, either of you can you be clear? What's happened?” Maryam asked, worried eyes looking around in hopes of getting a better sense of the situation from body language as much as words. Well. Rose hadn't spotted -this- happening... had something else changed? Maybe that had been a Maybe. Or perhaps out of order.. Sight was confusing when it was as aimless as a Seer's visions.

     “It's Janey,” Roxy said, finally releasing her grip on Leijon's shoulder, tugging her hand back when Leijon caught her with a sharp nail hard enough to sting the skin. “She's gone.” The words had a flat, upset stomach tone to them, and the usual dark lipped smile was twisted downward into a disconcerting grimace instead.

     “Got herself killed again? Been a while for her. She'll be back, just need to hunt her down. ..Odd, I didn't feel anything change,” the wild goddess said, stepping back a pace or two and warily eyeing Roxy. Too close for comfort, too much grabbing, not welcome, not wanted after the upsetting conversation with Maryam earlier and the apparent risk to her beasts. Jane hadn't been involved in their fate, at least according to what she'd been told to expect. Perhaps things were changing for the better now that things were changing, and they'd leave and she could remain to fight whatever threat was coming, if the vision was still to be believed. An immortal being misplaced was strange but surely not that horrendous, and almost certainly not a Her problem.

     “No, she ain't been killed she's.. she's gone,” Roxy said again.

     “Where's she gone?” Maryam asked, confused. “Was she meant to be doing something specific and you need her back, or..?”

     “Gone,” Jake said as he straightened back up, still breathing heavily. “Just.. She just up and vanished! We were talking, and she just froze for a moment and went wide eyed, opened her mouth and she.. she disappeared. Everything went silent and then there was this flash of light, I've never seen anything like it. It's like she was trying to talk but noise stopped working, or my ears broke, then it was like going blind for a second.”

     “Any idea what she was saying?” Maryam asked, going closer to Roxy herself now that a trail had potentially opened up. An unexpected trail, but hints and opportunity nonetheless, and the void would be much more accurate to go where they needed to in a rush.

     “No,” Jake said, shaken, worried. “No she just.. We were talking about food and the fact that it was almost time for children to go to the temples, and she was telling me about what the locals in that city do for the festival that goes with it now compared to the old ways, and new trends. The cakes and candies.” He was quiet for a moment, then seemed to remember something else. “She asked if I heard something, but I hadn't aside from her voice. Then the quiet and the light and Jane was gone. I need your help, I need to find her, something's wrong, something -feels- wrong,” he said worriedly.

     “I wasn't right by them when it happened, but I was pretty close nearby and saw the flash. It was huge! Like it came outta the sky, but then like it was comin' outta the ground. When I went to check it out, Jake was already frantic and sayin' he was gonna come get Leijon for help. So I guess you'd have an idea what to do or how to help? Maybe how to track her,” Roxy said, shifting her weight and glancing to her portal, making sure it stayed solid as a blank space in the air, all light disappearing into its matte surface. “There were scorch marks on the ground, though. Like lightnin' strike, but no fire damage. I'm pretty sure that was where she was standin', but Jake can show you the exact spot in case I'm wrong.”

     Leijon looked a bit alarmed as well now, but just as hesitant to let Roxy guide her to the void where despite it being a shorter journey, her senses would be all but useless till she came out the other side. A goddess disappearing was one thing, a goddess being.. struck down and disappearing into unknown light without a trace was more in line with Rose's visions of disappearance and blocked sight. Instead of choosing immediately, she shot a look to Maryam who nodded.

     “Let's go. Jake, show us where you two were when this happened, will you? Close as you can get. If we hurry, maybe we can find clues and figure out where she may have gone. Rose saw flashes of light, but not what happened after the dark spots appeared, and this wasn't foreseen at all from the peeks I could do in the bowl! We might be able to stop the others from happening.”

     It was a lie. Maryam knew deep in her gut that it had to be a lie, or at least a heavily weighted truth. From the look on Jake's face as he glanced her way, he knew the same thing from instinct alone, but it was he who grabbed Leijon by the shoulders and steered her towards Roxy's void portal.

     “Please, Leijon, I'll make it up to you later. I'll do whatever you need me to. But I need your help right now, Jane needs your help right now. The temple will be fine without you here for a little while, and I'll give it a thorough wash later if you want or bring you your favorite smoked fish offerings. Forgive me this one favor.”

     “You'll have your work cut out for ya,” Roxy warned. “I couldn't see anything, I tried lookin' once Jake took off this way, but there's not much left behind but the marks. Humans all cleared out shoutin' about gods being angry and storms in broad daylight. It's a mess.”

     Though still agitated, Leijon looked a little more placated. It was a tall order.. but she was fond of Jake, having spent so long with him, and if anyone was to hunt someone down, who better than a huntress? With Maryam flanking, Roxy widened the portal and stepped inside, closing the gap when the space behind them disappeared and the new location in the heart of the city opened in yawning greeting to the unknown several feet ahead.

     Hopefully, Maryam thought, it would open to more answers.

 


	5. Layers Of Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With no sign of the missing Jane, Jake and Roxy are sent by Maryam to question Pyrope. Unbeknownst to them there is already myriad other questions that need asked by John, Dirk and Dave about some rather disturbingly similar issues. Obviously something is very wrong, something is happening or changing in a way none of the Gods or Goddesses can comprehend. Who better to ask than the elder seer? 
> 
> Now is only that elder seer will divulge her secrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original tumblr post: http://themockingcrows.tumblr.com/post/169748222777

     The city looked different than Jake had remembered it. He'd just been there, and yet it held a completely different feeling to him now that Jane was missing. Humans were drifting around, some chattering and trying to figure out what the bright light had been without getting too close to the broken bits of the street, while others were either ignorant of what had happened or trying to ignore it and carry on with their busy day. Those who remained looked even more startled when they took in Maryam and Leijon's appearances, as well as Jake's with his older fashioned clothes, while Roxy managed to not draw much in the way of attention by comparison. The one virtue of dressing fairly fashionably was it kept the staring away. It was a blessing when the humans eventually saw themselves away from the small group and the site entirely, willed into motion by enough mental pushing from the four of them trying so hard to blend in and be masked from casual view.

     As described, the area seemed undisturbed for the most part, save for a small divot in the ground and traces of cracking as if by a huge impact. There were no obvious burn marks, no major destruction, no electricity in the air as if after a storm on this clear day. ..Nothing. Nothing but the vague, hollow sense that something was very wrong.

     Roxy shivered a bit and rubbed her arms. “It's like feelin' a void that opened up, but it's not mine at all. Random voids and vortexes are wild'n totally unpredictable.”

     “Are they like lightning when they appear?” Maryam asked. “I know we can appear places and travel quickly, even Jake can do his jumps, but none of those are like what you described before. ..It DOES feel strange, however, even I'm feeling something off.”

     “The only one of us with things like lighting is the one who deals with storms,” Leijon said. “Maybe you're asking the wrong people,” she said as she came close and crouched down, touching the damaged site with her fingertips, trying to get a sensation she could track easier. It was dry, and after some more pressure, oddly crumbly. “..Whatever it was, there _was_ a good deal of heat to it, but not a single burn.”

     “Can you track it, then?” Jake asked.

     “Track WHAT,” she said, leaning to give it a sniff anyway. “There's nothing here. There's no origin point in range for something this powerful, it had to come from up, or through a vortex probably.”

     Jake's face fell and he suddenly looked wildly uncomfortable. “..So what do we do, then?”

     “Nothing,” Leijon said as she straightened, immediately raising a hand to point at Maryam before he could interject. “It also means you'll be pulling double duty. Some miracles won't be happening, but if life is gone, birth and new beginnings will have to work twice as hard to pick up the slack. Try to give your best, healthiest births you can manage till Jane comes back.”

     “But there's no way that's sustainable for very long,” Maryam said, worry creeping into her tone.

“It's not. Who knows, maybe you're going to inherit her ability,” Leijon shrugged.

     Roxy shook her head instantly. “But she never transferred it, it'd take too long to forcibly adapt!”

     “That's why I agreed it's not a sustainable thing, but what do you expect me to say Roxy?” she asked. “Be patient, wait for her to return, leave the world to fall to chaos? I need her to keep my animals healthy, and humans need her as well to ensure their broods come into the world hale and hearty as well as their food to survive right? Right. We can't just ask them casually to fucking stop and hold off on everything because one goddess disappeared.”

     “She didn't go on purpose.” Jake said. “If we could just find out what took her, I-”

     “Jake. You've been with me for years now. Many, many years. You might be governing hope but there's a time and a place for hopefulness and then there's a time and a place for _action_. This is a time for action, full stop, not for wringing our hands and looking for someone who might not be found. We'll search more as things appear, but for now I don't see the point or the appeal of it,” Leijon sighed. “Get more leads and follow them, give me an idea of what I'm hunting or why I should be hunting it instead of the transfer of power happening till she reappears on her own. But don't just stand there with a long face when we're talking about keeping important things running. Maryam,” she said suddenly, “are you going to come back with me right now, or are you going to stick around here?”

     “Actually I was going to return to Rose, likely,” she said. “If I'm lucky, she may be up to seeing things again soon. We may be able to get a bit more information on what's happening.. and I should talk to Pyrope as well when I get the chance, should Jane not reappear soon.” The memory of what she'd seen in Rose's bowl, the visions of herself going to different places and speaking with different people flickered to her mind. She made herself drop the thought and the sudden worrying sense of impending doom it brought with it, not wanting to hold more worries than she already was or risk bringing those worries home with her. Rose had been through enough already without needing to deal with even more feelings of stress from everything around her.

     She needed to be the rock right now, and stay strong herself till something gave one way or another for better or worse.

     “I'm going home for now.. There's much to do, and much coming. Enough oddities and those foul visions of the future have given me even less desire than usual to be this close to humans,” she said, resting her hands on her hips and heading down the road. She raised one hand before she turned the nearest corner, seeking an alley to disappear from within more discretely. “Contact me if there are further major changes, or if there is more clues or directions about Jane. Otherwise? Keep out of my way and steep up to take her place best you can while she's gone, and get comfortable with the idea that you'd be handling it alone for the foreseeable future. If we need to raise up another god or goddess it could take time to even find them, let alone raise and train them up and let their immortality settle in,” Leijon said, then ducked out of view. Even Jake could feel the air shift when she disappeared, knowing her presence had faded from that place.

     “...What am I to do now?” Jake asked, more to the open air than to either of the remaining women beside him. “I've a feeling I won't be of much use at the temple right now. I'm not so certain a God whose entire purpose is to enrich hopefulness would be so welcome right now around a Goddess who wants only action for now.”

     “She'll warm up soon.. There's still no guarantee that what was seen will come to pass, we just need to wait,” promised Maryam, rubbing at her eyes for a moment, double checking her plan

     “Yes, bu-”

     “No buts. Find something else to busy yourself with for the time being,” Maryam offered. “Leijon is determined, and she is stubborn and full of pride.. but if she needs you, you'll know and we can take you back to her in a flash. Maybe you should speak with John. Ask if he's aware of any strange currents or storm activity. Perhaps seek an audience with Ampora as well?”

     “Why Ampora..?”

     “The ocean tends to see many things that never hit the land. The odd flashes may have been happening in the ocean before, or at least above it. Everything above affects below as well. He and John tussle and argue a good deal as well: if anything has him sour and he even thinks it may be John's doing, he'd be quick to tell you in full detail,” promised Maryam with a soft smirk, looking a little more at peace with herself when Jake looked less troubled.

     He was a good replacement for the job, though the original would always be missed. A good heart was resting in his chest.

     She walked closer to him while reaching out, hugging around his shoulders and patting his upper back. “Don't fret too hard. Run an errand for me first, if you're not quite sure what to do with yourself?”

     Roxy drifted closer to them now that it seemed she was likely going to be escorting Jake elsewhere, glad for a bit more company while she had it. The urge to open a void and stay hidden inside of it was a strong one she was fighting to ignore.. but it wouldn't be helpful to anyone else right now. Not even herself, if she got right down to it. Running or sulking wasn't going to bring Jane back any faster.

     “Need two sets of hands for that job? It seems I've got a lotta time on my hands,” she said, trying to keep as leisurely as she could now, wanting to keep up with the shifting mood. Last one to be deadly serious lost.

     “By all means, the more the merrier. I was wondering if you could check in with Pyrope for me. I'm going to speak to her soon on my own, but this may yield some more interesting results,” admitted Maryam.

     “Interesting results how?” Roxy asked. “What's the point of talking to someone you're already going to talk to about the same thing?”

     “Because sometimes she says two different things. If two younger deities ask questions and get one answer, I can get my own then pressure her further with whatever it was she told you,”Maryam said, her grin growing when Roxy nodded in understanding and Jake looked scandalized.

     “You want us to lie? To Pyrope of all people??” he asked, immediately shaking his head. “No, no I couldn't. I can't, not to her, she-!”

     “Won't do anything to you, Jake, you're not at risk of being destroyed. You're not the baby any longer,”Maryam offered as she stroked the front of her own clothing down into place. “It will also give me some extra time with Rose. See if she feels better, up to taking another look around, look for Jane.. and when you're done you can also speak with John if he's not taken off too far.”

     “If Dirk or Dave are around he won't be far,” Roxy rolled her eyes, planting her hands on her hips. “Jake, let's go. It'd do good to visit everyone more often anyway, right? I haven't seen Rosie in a while anyway.”

     “Nothing's stopping you, you know,” Maryam pointed out. “She'd be delighted to have you visit more often, like you used to.”

     Roxy shuffled in place slightly, suddenly a bit bashful about the entire subject. One moment she'd been prepared and wanting desperately to tuck herself away into her own void, safe and sound away from the awkward feelings that the missing space of Jane was making her feel and the next was a wave of feeling like a negligent parent that never was. She put on a smile that was a little too much teeth, trying to compensate. There was no way to explain the worry of being a potential third wheel when the second wheel of the bike was right in front of her and.. still feeling like the best fit for the space possible. At least by comparison to herself. Oh well, go big or go home, right?

     “Well. That... would be great actually! I'll pop on in with him for Pyrope, stick around afterward and see Rose before she's settled back in with you. Maybe see if I can pants Dirk or John while I'm at it.”

     “Is Dave excluded from the pantsing?” Jake asked, so seriously that Roxy's smile softened into something far more real while she laughed out a sound like birdsong.

     “Yes! For now though. I can get his pants off any time if I time it right, but it's a tradition to pants those two. Especially John, the wriggly bastard..”

     “John?” he asked, lifting a brow. Maryam quietly stepped away from the pair to give a few more glances over the site Jane had disappeared from, toeing at the ground to check the stability in case there were any more clues to be found. “Why John? I know Dirk's easy to talk into taking his clothes off, it's kind of his job, but. Half the times I've seen the fellow he's been bare or in the process of getting bare.”

     “All the tricks with the wind he can pull are seriously cheating, but I can keep up to a good point with my voids. I've managed to yank them off a few times, others he's just let me do it. ..And Jake, no offense, but I think half the reason you saw John naked so often was because he wanted you to,” said Roxy. She reached a hand out to snag Jake by the wrist, fingers curling tight to keep him from darting away or dragging his feet. The sooner Roxy could get away from this place and not come back for a good long while, the better. If she could raze the space and salt the soil beneath it she would. “Shall we then?”

     “I-? Oh. Er, yes. Please,” Jake said, glancing over his shoulder as the Goddess waved her arm and ripped open the void, its soothing emptiness a far better comfort than the air around him. “I'll see you later Maryam, and let you know what all I've found!”

     “Of course, Jake,” Maryam said in a distracted way, stopping her poking about when a shiver ran down her spine. It wasn't the same sense of dread as before, but considering how things had been lately with sensations being a prelude or followup to big events, nothing sat well. Did some else disappear..? What had changed? No screams of rage and no sudden flights of birds, so it couldn't be Leijon.

     Maybe it was just in her head, too much thought in spoiled air.

     Jake gave a brief, gentlemanly bow before Roxy yanked him hard enough his shoulder twinged, tugging him into the void behind her and slamming it shut an instant later, leaving Maryam behind as if she'd never had company to begin with.

     She rubbed her upper arms and pondered going home immediately. That sensation wa-.. no. No, she couldn't. Not this soon, not while Rose still needed to rest. Rushing back would be a comfort, but perhaps she could make it even sweeter. Maryam glanced around herself and picked a direction back towards a main road, drifting up beside a young couple and waiting till both of them noticed her.

     “Pardon,” she said with a smile, trying to be as unassuming as she could, not wanting to need to calm some minds afterwards, “but I realized I'm a bit lost. Could either of you please tell me where the nearest confectionery is?”

 

\- - - - - - -

 

     John had caught up with Dave and Dirk already, though he didn't know what to make of Dave's excited rambling and Dirk's stern expression. On one hand it sounded like a great time and he was a little sour he hadn't tagged along for the duration. Who cared if it was sword practice? Not all enemies used a sword? Some well aimed breeze would do just as fine, teach him to avoid being disarmed by more magical creatures.

     Or he could just skip the serious fighting training entirely, disarm the little God and overwhelm him on the ground while he squirmed and scrat-

     “John, look, I don't know how to say it any clearer,” Dirk started, only to have Dave shake his head and stomp a foot down.

     “I can. It was fucking _**weird**_ ,” Dave declared. “I've never seen myself quite like that, much less the two of us at the same time.”

     “So they were doing everything you were both doing, in the same order,” John repeated. He shifted his position to float, laying flat on his back before allowing it to arch, fluidly sliding his position around like a serpent to observe both of their faces easier, chin on his folded arms and legs dangling near his line of sight thanks to his bent position. “Including sounds and.. they looked solid, right?”

     “Yes, but the voices sounded just the slightest bit off,” Dave confirmed, leaning back against Dirk without even aiming, letting the larger God brace his upper back with one hand like a living leaning post, coaxing back enough to relax but not worry about falling.

     “....Why not just keep going and try to finish up so you'd get a glimpse of the two of you fucking?” John asked, expression going wicked, brows lifting a few times with exaggerated lechery. Wasn't much of an exaggeration, really, but the feeling was still there.

     “John, be serious!” Dirk asked, though he already knew what that was really asking.

     “Don't 'John be serious' me, I'm being serious as a human's declaration of there being luck on their side! ..Okay, well, declaration of luck being on their side when I'm in a good mood,” he hummed, distracted for a moment before diving back into it. “Ah. But, no, seriously. You'd have finally gotten to enjoy seeing what I get to see when you two are paired off.”

     “John,” Dave groaned.

     “It's a _good view_ ,” John insisted, “you don't know what you're missing!”

     “If I could see the world through your eyes, John, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but as it is.. no,” Dave said, reaching up to slap a hand over John's mouth to keep him from rebutting immediately, following his motions as he tried to glide backwards and slightly up. When he floated up out of range of Dave's hand, Dirk placed his hand there instead, righting Dave's posture so he could free his hand up to sling around the back of his shoulders instead, keeping him in place a little longer. “It felt different. It felt.. wrong. I was scared, even.”

     John let out a muffled noise of a sentence, then glanced to Dirk with a smug lift of his brows, urging him to translate or guess what was being said since covering his mouth over had apparently been of such _dire_ fucking importance.

     “....You asking why he was scared?”

     “Mmph.Mmh hmmng nn noophmh hr.”

     Dirk frowned a bit. “..Why was he scared if I was there?”

     John's eyes crinkled at the edges and he clapped in amusement, breezes stirring sharply around Dirk's shirt to try flaring the bottom edges upwards, tickling him while still letting the wind swirl sharp as a scratch right afterward for emphasis.

     Ding ding ding, there was a winner!

     Dave's eyes flashed briefly before he calmed again, walking to John's other side to keep up with his urge to be moving but not to stray far from the cluster. “I was still scared because I've.. never seen anything like that before. It wasn't just me, it was Dirk as well. It was an exact copy, doing as we were doing. Dopplegangers almost. Who was to say that they wouldn't suddenly start to do different things when they'd caught up enough?” he asked. “What if they caught up to what we were doing and then wanted to do more? What happens when shadows suddenly want to take their own steps for once?”

     John reached up to struggle with Dirk's hand, uncovering his lips enough to huff out a sentence properly. “Awfully poetic, but I doubt it's anything that severe. Maybe it's like that dark spot Jade couldn't see around.”

     “Or the red spot Rose saw,” Dave said.

     His tone had gone so sullen that John couldn't help but reach his winds out and lift Dave up, stroking at his cheeks and hair, ruffling his clothes and drawing him closer to dangle upside down as well so he was in range for John to touch at his cuffed wrists.

     “..Was all that really that scary, though? They were just blank spots. And the red spot.”

     “And the great beasts dying,” Dirk reminded him. “And not being able to spot anyone AFTER the disappearance points.”

     “Well. Rose isn't the only seer, Pyrope surely could see SOMETHING if she knew where to look specifically, right? Their powers are different but very linked, and she's got more practice,” John pointed out, shuffling Dave a few times till he was stuck in a gentle rocking motion that only broke when he flared a few agitated spurts of fire and struggled to get his feet back on the ground. He wasn't dropped immediately however, as both gods loved the strange swimming motions their small lover was performing, not able to grasp hold of anything more than whatever parts of John he could grab hold of, not capable of making himself sink to the floor.

“     John, put me down before I burn you, I can't stand waiting anymore now that the idea's in my head, I'm gonna go ask!”

     “Ask Pyrope? To do what specifically?” Dirk asked. “Which point should you even ask her to focus on?”

     “Ours probably,” Dave said, grateful when he was finally allowed to drop to his feet, staggering under his newly regained sense of gravity till he could right himself under his own power. “Maybe she'd know about Jade's issue as well? That one's probably linked to some of the things Rose saw.. though, maybe Jade should get an audience on her own at this point. You kind of stood her up for _ages_ , ya dick.”

     “Hey. _HEY._ I did not stand her up for ages, I merely completely forgot anything was meant to happen and then when I remembered we promptly met,” John defended, swooping up and then dropping down to a sudden halt right above Dirk's shoulder's, nuzzling the top of his hair idly. “There is a big difference there, don't make it out like I'm some cad doing people wrong on purpose. Besides, originally she wanted to talk to Megido.”

     “..Huh. Actually that makes sense,” Dirk conceded, debating on if he should shove John off or not. In the end, he reached a hand up without thinking too hard on it, stroking at his dark hair affectionately as one would pet a cat. His lip quirked up briefly when John just pushed his head harder against his thick fingers, hoping the pressure would continue or grow in quality, ever greedy for more of a good thing. “Probably wanted to skip conferring with another seer when her own methods were coming up bust, and go straight to the cheat sheet option. See if there was an issue even with just a yes or a no.”

     Dave turned, starting to walk once more along the marble floor that was by now as familiar as the back of his own hand and soothing against his bare feet. Dirk and John followed him, silent as wraiths down the hall, veering away from the more formal gathering space and edging towards Pyrope's room. “There's no chance of that, seems like. It's been a long time since I've actually seen her anywhere, aside from Rose's bowl.”

     “Jade said as much too, she's not even answering those who call on her for guidance,” John added.

     “Not even for offerings?” Dirk asked incredulously, halting the petting gesture as he walked, wanting his hands to hang loose and comfortable at his sides. “I've not seen her myself, but still. That's surprising.. Not even on her claimed day..?”

     “No, nothing,” John said. “No miracles, no sightings that garnered gossip. ..Well. Okay, I guess we can assume there will always be gossip of one kind of another, they're humans. Someone who looks nothing like her could pull some kind of a scam a-”

     “Luck wouldn't be on their side, it'd never work,” Dave interrupted.

     “Who's to say it wouldn't be?” came John's best attempt at an innocent tone.

     “John you wouldn't _dare_ ,” Dirk muttered, swatting him sharply on the thigh before he could drift out of range again, darting like a wisp of air all on his own.

     “Wouldn't I? Dirk, you've seen fakes of yourself, they're hilarious and putting the fear of. ..Well, fear of _you_ in their hearts is so great. It's like a race between if they'll suddenly drop the entire farce and shit themselves, or if they'll double down and try to call YOU the fake while quaking in their boots. I've yet to meet a true disbeliever who didn't scream when I lifted them off the ground.”

     “You're why nobody takes wind as seriously as they should,” said a sour Dirk, turning round a sharp bend at Dave's pace. “Your antics are why people take their chance with storms.”

     “Hey, storms are perfectly safe! Usually. It's the lightning that's a risk, and the debris.”

     “Which you control!” Dave said, stopping to turn and stare at John briefly before he turned around and walked again, scrubbing at his hair with both hands, eyes glowing. Ugh, he loved John so but sometimes things just didn't quite translate in his head correctly it seemed.

     “I don't control trees and rocks and buildings,” John pointed out. The wicked look had crawled back onto his face as he gusted ahead of Dave, floating on his back and casually paddling along as if doing a leisurely backstroke in front of him. “It's all up to luck if they dodge in time. I can't make everyone lucky and they know that. It's their gamble as much as me caring to pay off their rewards sometimes to keep things interesting. ..It's no fun if everyone can guess who wins and loses under which conditions. Gotta keep it random.”

     “That's still terrible, I remember being terrified of being carried away by storms growing up, the way the wind would howl and flap,” Dave said, watching John slow near the end of the hallway and double back rather than try to enter Pyrope's quarters unannounced alone. Couldn't pay him to do that. Bribe, perhaps, pay no.

     “If I didn't have competition and wasn't having to wait for you to hurry up and age correctly you would have been carried off in a heartbeat. You're not exactly big, Dave, it would be like an eagle carrying off a hamster..”

     Dirk was the one who slowed next, reaching out to clasp Dave's shoulder, trying to make him re-focus on what was happening and where they were. “Are you sure about asking Pyrope right now? We can always wait till Rose is feeling better, maybe get some backup at least? Or wait till Maryam is back, she'd listen to a Goddess in excellent standi-”

     “No, I'm asking Pyrope NOW,” Dave insisted, though he did halt when Dirk touched him.

     “Asking Pyrope what now?” came Jake's voice, sliding out of a pocket of void behind them smoothly enough that even Dirk jumped and scrambled to turn around in alarm. “Because I've some things to ask her as well. What say we go in as chums, overwhelm her with numbers and questions in good faith?”

     “Good faith. Cute,” Roxy chuckled, releasing her grip on his wrist so she could close up the void properly, adjusting her hair afterwards in a nervous habit to settle herself. This was a lot more activity than she'd planned, why was everyone already in one single spot? There was no time to disperse everything out and relax herself, plan her next mo-

     “Ah, did you wish to try and make John and Dirk relinquish their pants before we visited Pyrope, or after?” Jake asked cheerfully. “We're a tad pressed for time and I'd much prefer seeing her with all of them present as well, but no sense in not giving it a good try afterwards if it were to be a challenge. Should be a rip-snorting good time either way I assume!”

     “I'm sorry, relinquish my what?” Dirk asked. When Roxy laughed and glanced away, he took a few steps to follow. “Roxy, it's been a while since you came for those, what caused the sudden mood hmm?”

     She laughed louder and surged forwards, yanking open the Pyrope's door by force, using her void to prop the gap wider. “WELL! Would you look at that, time to go ask questions now! Games later, everyone in or I close this on your ass, who knows what you'd lose if I did.”

     “It's just a private door, it'd bounce of-” Dave started to say, but gave up when John gusted him forwards with the rest of them, closing the gap while they could.

     Jake seemed to be in excellent spirits, though the obvious air of tension hung around him, nerves sinking down his shoulders edges and crumpling the self assured stance into something more anxious. Uncertain. “Well, there's no use tempting fate, right? ..Literally, actually, the things I've heard from Jane are quite extraordinary.. What questions did you need to ask though, chums, more of the same as we are?”

     “Well, Dirk and I were training earlier an-” began Dave, only to find himself once more interrupted. This time not by a voice, but by a presence.

     Pyropes rooms were unlike any of the others Dave had been in. Had he been here before? Yes, very briefly, and only in the section she had opened purposefully for them all to access ahead of time. This was an entirely different part of the open space, and it highlighted a good deal of her personality, from the colors down to the textures. Dave found himself wondering how much of that had to do with her losing her sight, and how much of it had been there beforehand just because she enjoyed it.

     The air was perfumed with the smell of fruits, wines, fine foods. Roasted meat, an eternal favorite, added a smoky air from the tabletop set up as humans would set offerings on an altar instead of it being a group meal or even a solo setting, silver trays and highly decorative jugs and platters. It made sense.. she didn't require food or drink to survive, it was all for fun, why would she bother with proper place settings and all of that effort for something she was just going to pick and take from as she wanted at any time like a glorious buffet?

     Each of the bright white walls were decorated with tapestries rich with all the colors of the rainbow, the fine weaving showing delicate scenes from both reality and dreams. Most were landscapes or different sceneries, while others were more focused on the abstract with her sign, aspects of her own appearance, sharp teeth and sharks, swirling clouds, balanced scales. There had been statues at some point, busts, taller figures both of herself and of different humans who had served her well enough for her to recall their names even now.. but all that remained in their place was rubble, uncleaned and un-repaired. Most had been smashed to pieces, torn in half, or just left to fall to ruin with time.

     The further in they went, the more Dave realized along with Dirk that the ground had changed along with the walls. Gone was the cool marble and in its place was a soft, unnatural colored wood that gave off the same dreamy properties as the tapestries had. Whatever tree this was from, from the vines intertwining through and around the hung paintings and trappings of conquest to the leaves that cushioned them, to the soft silky texture of the grain beneath his toes, Dave had never seen its kind before. Things were less organized here, more hectic, more wild.

     “..It's a little like Leijon's temple,” Jake said softly. “With the overgrowth.”

     “If I didn't know better I'd say this wasn't boards but built in the heart of a tree itself somehow. ..Though, perhaps it is. There's no limits to personal spaces like this, and it's quite a handsome feat,” Dirk admitted. “Rose and Maryam seem to favor flowering growths as well, perhaps that's a link between them.”

     “Roxy, does your room have a lot of live flowers?” Dave asked. “I've never seen it yet.”

     “I'll show you later, but. No, it doesn't. There are many cats however, I've a fondness for them. And books, and soft things. It's more solid than the void, but I wanted it to be just as relaxing to be in,” she explained, trying to keep her voice down. It felt wrong to be in here without an invitation, like they were trespassing more than just seeking an audience.

     ..Perhaps they should have asked prior somehow? Oh this felt bad, this felt very, very bad suddenly.

     The soft, silvery purple of the wood around the room was in disarray with the myriad of bright colors and wild textures present in the cloth they could see now. From the large four poster bed to a pile of soft things in the slightly sunken corner, everything was awash in rainbows that stung even John's eyes. Yet despite the wildness, the lack of order, there seemed to be a method.

     How much of a reliable method there was was likely debatable. Dave wasn't certain if the Goddess had ever bothered to fix her vision for certain or not. She had to have.. right? Maybe this was just how it normally looked: wild and disordered and far more hectic than one would assume based on her outward appearance. Fitting, sort of. The polished, hard edged blade of justice and balance towards humans and anyone watching, then a cacophony of everything else into a few piles in spaces only she was usually in.

     “Wonder if this is why she tends to take lovers elsewhere,” Dirk hummed before going still. He could make out a familiar shape half in the pile of soft things, still as if she were resting, knees bent and arms wrapped around herself in a tight hold. Roxy frowned and reached forward to hold Dave's shoulder instinctively, wanting to keep him back. For good measure she grabbed Jake's wrist again as well, coaxing them backwards from a potential blast zone.

     “Pyrope?” John asked. Dirk kept his back, ready to assist as the God drifted closer bit by bit, stopping when he was a few feet above her. “...Pyrope?” he asked louder.

     She bolted upright as if she'd been stung, red eyes wide and wet, shoulders rising and falling with heavy breaths as she gasped. Was she shivering? She was fully clothed, the comfortable loose garments finely stitched in gold and silver thread for details along the rich red fabric that hung around her, but there were wrinkles and rumples from the pressure of her weight. How long had she been laying in the same position.

     “I-.... John?” she asked to confirm, lifting her chin and squinting her eyes out of habit as she focused her abilities to 'see' him properly. “Why are you in here? Wait, why are ANY of you in here? I didn't invite you in here!”

     “Easy, we had some questions we needed to ask, it's very important,” Dirk said. Dave peered out from behind his left side with Roxy's face above his head as Jake peeped around the right side in a mirror image. “I believe Jake and Roxy had important business as well, so we decided to just all pile in at once. Why anger you twice?”

     “Why indeed,” she huffed. Though the Goddess rose to her feet easily, stretching as nonchalantly as she could before wandering around the large bed to a low cushioned seat in front of a mirror backed table, taking a seat and reaching for a few of the small jars that decorated the back. Uncorking it let loose the sweet, spicy smell of a perfume she'd enjoyed the humans preparing for her hundreds of years ago when it was all the rage. She dabbed this at either side of her neck and her wrists, still as enamored as ever. The slight shake to her shoulders remained, as did the crease between her sharp, angular brows. Worry was not a look that Pyrope could hide as well as she assumed, but nobody broached the subject.

     How could they, really, when they were already interrupting and trespassing? The fact she hadn't attacked them all was a blessing in and of itself already, why push their luck further?

     “Well?” Pyrope pushed, glancing up towards the mirror and angling her chin just so before reaching for another pot, sniffing it gently before reaching for a few others, trying to find just the shade of red she was after. They all smelled slightly different thanks to the ingredients in them, making it easier to know what she wanted without needing to use her abilities to peek. “What is it that you decided to bother me over? Questions. Bring them up now or get out and wait for me to come for you to talk instead.”

     Jake surged forward, pulling free of Roxy's hand to take advantage of his bravery while he could. It was important! It was for Jane!

     “Pyrope, I-... Jane's gone missing. Leijon has no leads, we can't find any trace of her. She just. She just disappeared,” he blabbed, hands lifting for emphasis as if pleading. “Please, Rose isn't up to seeing things right now, we need leads. Clues. Hints. Anything. If she's okay, even, or reformed somewhere else entirely. We can't find her an-”

     Pyrope lifted a red dabbed finger to shush him before applying the lipstick in a well practice smearing motion, mouth looking as if she'd dabbed her lips with fresh blood. “I'll answer you in a second. What about the other questions. They the same thing, or do you have a challenge?”

     Though he looked disgruntled at being told to wait, Jake crossed his arms and tried to be patient. John touched down properly on the ground and leaned against the side of the Goddess' table with his palms, though his eyes were trained on Jake with alarm. Jane, missing? How?

     “Jade came to me. For the last.. oh. Decade or so she's been having issues seeing past a certain point. Everything just goes dark, and she can't find any reason for it. Also Megido's refusing to answer to anyone who prays to her and lays out offerings, so she hasn't gotten any clue from her, and now Rose is kind of indisposed? I don't think it's an emergency but she's all kinds of upset and if other things are happening at the same time the-”

     “Things ARE happening,” Dave interrupted, going to the other side of Pyrope's table and planting his hands down. “They were happening earlier while Dirk and I trained, and they happened with Rose! We were seeing a.. an after image of ourselves moving and fighting as we were, we could hear ourselves. And when we came to see what was happening, Rose's bowl kept going dark whenever she tried to view things but then it went red and we saw-”

     “Enough,” Pyrope insisted, voice sharp as a scratch down a chalkboard. She rubbed her hands clean on a cloth, but made no move to stand up. Instead, her features tensed and twisted as she weighed out what to say, focusing her sight outward and inward at the same time, trying to feel out the links. Some she was aware of already, but the rest of these seemed to link together. “..I know about the blank spaces, but I don't know what to do about them yet. I know about the red as well. She wasn't the only one to see that,” she said simply. “..And as for Jane, I'm not sure. I don't feel her readily.”

     “Can you try looking back towards when she disappeared?” Jake asked. “Maryam, Roxy, Leijon and I were all just there so the trail should be plenty fresh. It was like lightning struck and she was gone, but there's not a single damnable sign of anything out of the norm. Everything went completely silent before she went, though! I mean. If that helps at all,” Jake added, the burst of emotion depleting when the red eyes trained themselves on him directly, looking through him.

     The faint flash of teal light dancing around her was all he needed to know, the sign her powers were at play, tracing back paths, branches, unfurling the roots of the tree from where he stood back the path he'd walked to get there. She grimaced at once and shook her head, looking weary suddenly. The shiver was back, the uncertainty that she didn't like. The same empty, worried feeling she'd taken with her while trying to will herself to rest away from her thoughts.

     “Speak to Makara, and the holder of fate. If Jane's strand is gone, or being held for some reason, then we'll understand more for her. I don't feel her at all, and I don't see why lightning would make a Goddess disappear like that. If she's gone, then Maryam needs to take on the responsibilities till something else changes, she knows that. Right?”

     “Yes, she knows. But. ...You really mean you don't know either?” Jake asked with a weak voice. “Is there any way perhaps you could find a shred of Megido anywhere, maybe she knows?”

     “Megido hasn't been around for quite some time, no properly at least, though she's obviously still doing her job. We'd know if the book was damaged or abandoned, and none of us would be functioning without her being around. ..But I can _feel_ her, and I know I can smell her too. I don't know what she's up to, but she's not gone. Not like Jane is. She'll come back when she feels like it, or when we need to see her most, don't question it too much. Focus on your own duties and picking the slack up from Jane.”

     “And the black splotches in the future? The red?” Dave pressed, John nodding from the other side of the table in tandem, reaching for any kind of information he could pass to Jade.

     A flicker of annoyance and sharp teeth were the most warning anyone got before Pyrope stood up and turned to look at Jake, Roxy and Dirk. “Later. Don't worry about it for now, it's different views for everyone. Something is interfering with sight but it's not like it's the end of the world or anything, it's merely a great frustration.”

     “Even the red?” Dave interrupted, darting around to get in front of her, fiery and impatient. “The things in that bowl we saw, the deaths, th-”

     “ENOUGH. Either take the words I give you, or leave me be! You were uninvited to my chambers and now you balk at the advice and answers I give like ungrateful humans! Seek Jane's thread, speak to Makara, and do your damned jobs till otherwise indicated. Things are changing and hectic right now, you'll be plenty busy for certain, clear sight ahead or not. Prepare yourselves for your elements, pay attention to what the humans tell you and what your own abilities are singing in your blood. That should be all the damned guidance you need for yourselves. I'll speak to you in the seating space next,” she said with certainty, a fact being stated and not a preference being indicated.

     The fires flared as if challenged, the bottom edges of Dave's clothing trying to lift, young and stubborn and prepared to fight at the slightest indication. He opened his mouth, but Roxy quickly covered it with both of her hands, tugging him backwards even though it stung her palms and fingers. She hissed a warning in his ear as she urged a void open behind them all, jerking her head to indicate John should leave quickly as well.

     “Sure thing, no need to turn us out on our ears. Those were fine answers,” she said, laughing to lighten the mood that had grown thick and tense. “Might be back after we do that running around though. Was good to get some confirmation though.”

     Pyrope crossed her arms, still looking frustrated. Dave didn't fight to talk, and simply took his thoughts with him into Roxy's void, wanting to get out of that room quickly. Even the decorations were getting on his nerves, bright and cheerful and wild offset by the rising tension in the air and his overwhelming desire to argue that was growing by the minute. He needed to get away, and the Goddess needed her space back to herself to calm down.

     Roxy closed the void behind them once John had darted in behind them, making their escape quickly and orderly without having to backtrack through the other chambers at all. Pyrope didn't allow herself to release the stiffness in her jaw and spine till they'd all left. She waited, breathed deeply, then slowly returned to her pile of soft things, curling her body up into it and holding herself tight. She would not sleep again, would not try to dream and wander and rest, but the urgency of things was growing in a way she couldn't put her finger on.

     Maryam would be coming eventually, she knew. It was one of the things she could see and feel clearly as day. ..Perhaps she could disclose these problems with her easier. Perhaps even Rose, if it came to it and the gaps remained dark and confusing. Though she was uncertain what use it would be to talk of it at all. There were things happening all around her, things she couldn't track or see for the first time, a restlessness in the future she could feel in her bones in a way she hadn't since time had begun and she first started to fill her duties. It was a blind spot that was hitting her even more sorely than the damage to her eyes had hurt her pride before, and not a blind spot that was offering to teach her things in the same way.

     What was a Goddess supposed to do when questioned by lesser Gods. Admit she was afraid?

     Laughable.

     She hugged herself tighter, smudged her lipstick against a soft blanket, and tried to will her thoughts to relax in fond memories instead. At least those weren't going anywhere any time soon.

 


End file.
